You like RPGs, right? Andrew Shields has finally finished a real magnum opus, his version of Jack Shear’s richly gothic campaign setting The World Between as driven by the Old School Hack engine, it is an amazing piece of work with system, setting and campaign creation all in one impressively comprehensive book. There’s goodies in here for any and all fantasy campaigning whether you’re interested in the setting or not. And it’s free! Download it and look through it! It’s be-yoo-tee-ful.

Quote from Erik Tenkar, November 19 2012 (Link above):

This one is a keeper. This one will make you lose sleep, as you try to read it in as few sessions as possible. This one is a hack of a hack. What do you get when you mix Old School Hack with the Gothic setting of The World Between? You get the blessings of Kirin Robinson (OSH) and Jack Shear (TWB) and make something that’s even greater than it’s already pretty damn good parts – The World Between for Fictive Hack by Andrew Shields.

Quote from Martin Ralya on G+, April 24 2014:

I rate it an 8/10, with this comment: “I love Old School Hack and Jack Shear’s setting work, so combined and run through Andrew Shields’ take on them they produce an interesting-looking game and world. The game looks like fun, the writing is excellent, and there are tons of things here that could be re-purposed elsewhere. It’s a light system, but savory: It wrings a lot of flavor out of its mechanics.

It’s presented grab-bag style, which is at times a bit frustrating for such a long book; by design, it’s more of a toolkit than a straight-ahead core book — the game describes itself as a grocery store full of ingredients with which to make your own meal. I’d have preferred a bit more organization.”

Wiki for tracking my Gothic fantasy Old School Hack campaign.

Check out “Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque” by Jack W. Shear. It is fantastic Gothic fantasy inspirational material. (Here is his review of my initial efforts! And here is his announcement of this book on his blog.) You can now get hard copy of his first and second compendium, and other great stuff, by checking out the sidebar on his blog.